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huge mopane and baobab trees, with jaws that rip off the womb of the earth.
When the wrecking is done, the diggers come in cutting gashes in the black-and-tan soil picking and spitting out coal pebbles.
The huge monsters from Bobcats to Caterpillar and Mack trucks sluggishly crawl up and down the length and breadth of the land, grunting and struggling through the raw earth.
Workers gather in twos and threes, in red and yellow helmets, reflectors, gloves, jeans and industrial shoes, discussing operational issues.
There is a spewing dust that resultantly cake on the leaves of trees. The yet to be uprooted trees wait for their turn in deafening silence. They cannot run for dear life. Neither can they appeal against their imminent demise.
Theirs is God’s case no appeal, for, underneath the trees are huge coal deposits, still set down in the bowels of earth.
Welcome to Makomo Coal Mine in Hwange, one of the fastest growing indigenous mines in the country, established courtesy of the national empowerment and indigenisation policy. This is one of the 18 indigenous companies issued with mining licences by the Government, under indigenisation, two years ago.
Two years after its opening in 2010, Makomo Mine has a coal output of about 200 000 tonnes of coal per month and can easily compete with any mine in Africa south of the Sahara.     
“We were granted mining rights by President Mugabe in June 2010 and we immediately moved here. We had a face to face interview with President Mugabe before he signed our mining grant.
“When we came here there was nothing, at all. We started operating from a container under a tree. Our first structure to build was a toilet. Everything else you see today followed, thereafter.
“There was high demand for coal and we approached Zimbabwe Power Company in Hwange and they wanted a sample of our coal. They wanted 5 000 tonnes to test at their power plant and they certified it good. But let me say we struggled to raise those first 5 000 tonnes but now we have a surplus. We actually need a market outside Zimbabwe, because ZPC is unable to buy all what we have,’’ says public relations manager Mr Kudakwashe Nyabonda.
At Makomo Mine the story is of resilience, hard work and professionalism by a consortium of black indigenous business people with a banking background. The level of operation leaves the most well run conglomerates drooling with envy.
In their first month of operation, they used 1 000 litres of diesel yet today they use a whooping 14 000 litres of diesel per day, as the machines cris –cross, digging, crashing and preparing the coal.
“The first equipment got here June 2010, by September we had mined 7 500 tonnes of coal. Our sample passed the test at ZPC Hwange and they asked us to deliver because they needed coal. After first commercial delivery to ZPC Hwange was 18 000 tonnes in November 2010.
“By then we had set up a crashing and screening plant, using diesel powered machines. We were growing day by day.
“As we speak we now supply 70 000 tonnes to ZPC Hwange per month but we have the capacity to supply 150 000 tonnes per month. As you can see we are actually stockpiling and looking for alternative markets outside the country.
“We also supply 80 000 tonnes of coal to Munyati, Harare, Bulawayo thermal power stations. These ones need a different type of coal, because their stations are smaller. They use a type called peas,’’ said Nyabonda.
A tour of the mine showed an array of machinery, from truck to front end loaders and graders extracting coal from pit after pit, in the open cast system. 
“Coal has seams. The top layer is where we get the power generating coal. This one has low burning capacity. The bottom seam has high quality peas or nuts that we extract for smaller thermal power stations.”
The road Makomo has travelled from day one sound to many, a tale tell when in actual fact it is reality and an example of how indigenous companies can also do what huge conglomerates have been doing foe centuries.
It actually justifies the indigenisation drive.
They started with 16 workers and  today they employ more than 500 workers. They started under a tree, they now have offices, huge complexes of administrative blocks. They have commissioned several crashing and screening plants after buying equipment from China and South Africa.
“In July 2011 we installed a  screening plant and engaged another mining contractor, named Macatoo Contractors. We then upped our power supply to ZPC. We needed this machine for screening and crashing peas, so in December 2012 we had to install yet another plant.
“This one produces cobbles, nuts, peas, rounds ad dust. All types. This has enabled us to open up markets in sugar plantations in Chiredzi, Hoppo Valley and Triangle. We got it from China.
“In March 2013, we commissioned a third plant. We are growing and we are now working on commissioning a fourth one, a washing plant to enable us to unlock value from the coal dust. We are also about to open a third pit,’’ said Nyabonda.
It has been hard work and it is still hard work, and what with the huge coal deposits, which, I Makomo mines at 1,2 million tonnes per month, will last for 23 years? 
Makomo has also come up with a multifarious array of community development projects, as part of paying back to the communities around it.
In the two years it has been operational it has built a two schools for the Shangano community and a clinic. The community has been using a school and clinic about 20 km away. 
The six chiefs in Hwange district get 100 litre of fuel each while the local chiefs gets 150 litres. The chiefs also get 150kg of Kapenta to feed the disadvantaged. Makomo Mine has also established a mobile clinic for the Shangano community where the mine gets nurses from St Patrick’s Hospital to treat sick villagers twice a week.
As the mine gets more mechanised, so does its production and so do the contribution to the nation and the immediate community. This is no doubt a success story of indigenisation.
What started as a small dig with a mattock at Shangano community has surely breathed life in Hwange district. The colossus earth moving equipment and the front-end loaders that unearth the black diamond has breathed a new lease of life into Hwange.
Traditional leaders have thanked the ancestors for such a blessing and Shangano as villagers see the mining operation as a life saver. Detractors of the national indigenisation programme must be scampering for cover with shame and disbelief, for, such is the success story of indigenous people.
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